1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electrically programmable and erasable non-volatile memory, and more particularly to charge trapping memory with a bias arrangement, in addition to threshold voltage raising and lowering operations, that modifies the charge in the memory.
2. Description of Related Art
Electrically programmable and erasable non-volatile memory technologies based on charge storage structures known as EEPROM and flash memory are used in a variety of modern applications. A number of memory cell structures are used for EEPROM and flash memory. As the dimensions of integrated circuits shrink, greater interest is arising for memory cell structures based on charge trapping dielectric layers, because of the scalability and simplicity of the manufacturing processes. Memory cell structures based on charge trapping dielectric layers include structures known by the industry names NROM, SONOS, and PHINES, for example. These memory cell structures store data by trapping charge in a charge trapping dielectric layer, such as silicon nitride. As negative charge is trapped, the threshold voltage of the memory cell increases. The threshold voltage of the memory cell is reduced by removing negative charge from the charge trapping layer.
Conventional SONOS devices use ultra-thin bottom oxide, e.g. less than 3 nanometers, and a bias arrangement that causes direct tunneling for channel erase. Although the erase speed is fast using this technique, the charge retention is poor due to the charge leakage through ultra-thin bottom oxide.
NROM devices use a relatively thick bottom oxide, e.g. greater than 3 nanometers, and typically about 5 to 9 nanometers, to prevent charge loss. Instead of direct tunneling, band-to-band tunneling induced hot hole injection (BTBTHH) can be used to erase the cell. However, the hot hole injection causes oxide damage, leading to charge loss in the high threshold cell and charge gain in the low threshold cell. Moreover, the erase time must be increased gradually during program and erase cycling due to the hard-to-erase accumulation of electrons in the charge trapping structure. This accumulation of charge occurs because the hole injection point and electron injection point do not coincide with each other, and some electrons remain after the erase pulse. In addition, during the sector erase of an NROM flash memory device, the erase speed for each cell is different because of process variations (such as channel length variation). This difference in erase speed results in a large Vt distribution of the erase state, where some of the cells become hard to erase and some of them are over-erased. Thus the target threshold Vt window is closed after many program and erase cycles and poor endurance is observed. This phenomenon will become more serious when the technology keeps scaling down.
In addition, charge trapping memory devices capture electrons in a charge trapping layer in both shallow and deep energy levels. Electrons trapped in shallow levels tend to de-trap faster than those electrons in deeper energy level traps. The shallow level electrons are a significant source of charge retention problems. In order to keep good charge retention, deeply trapped electrons are preferred.
Thus, a need exists for a memory cell that can be programmed and erased many times, without suffering increasing the threshold voltage after the erase operation that renders the memory cell inoperable, and which demonstrates improved charge retention and reliability.